Video Questions
Q: Are we allowed to video record the performance?
A: Yes, you are granted LIMITED video recording rights with your
Performance Licesne. By "limited," we mean that you are ONLY
allowed to video record the performance for your organization's archive
purposes and you may make that recording available only to your cast and
crew. You may not sell or otherwise distribute any recording of
your performance to anyone not directly involved with your production.
That means you can't distribute the recording-- even if it's free-- to
anyone who wasn't part of your cast or crew for the performance.
You can't send a copy to shut-ins, you cannot post it on your website,
and you can't let anyone see it who missed your live performance.
The playwright is very gracious in letting us allow you to record an archive recording and letting you provide a copy of that recording to your cast and crew as a souvenir of their experience. To allow a video recording into the public domain would deprive his ability to control the quality of the video being seen. and could possibly limit his ability to recieve royalty from future stage performances.
Imagine if you were contemplating producing Beneath the Upper Room in your church and you found a recording from another church's website of their production. And now, imagine that the performance was not very polished and the quality of the video was very poor-- you might have second thoughts about securing the performance rights for your church. That is precisely why we-- and every other performance rights granting company-- do not allow video taping of the play that we control. You have been granted live STAGE rights-- not RECORDING or BROADCAST rights. To be granted those rights would be VERY expensive indeed. That is why the damage awards in such copyright infringement lawsuits are so extreem.
Distributing an unauthorized video recording of a copyrighted script is a serious offense and will result in a very hefty fine and lawsuit, even for a church, so please be sure you control the use of your archive recording.
Q: Who can get a copy of our archive recording?
A: These are the only people allowed to possess a copy of your video recording:
- Your church office
- your show's actors
- your show's director
- The memebers of your technical staff/crew who worked on the show (this would include your costumers, your stage manager, your props crew, your lighting and sound crew, your backstage crew, etc)
- Members of your church who were not members of the cast or crew of the production
- relatives of the cast or crew
- pastors or other representatives of another church
- Anyone else who doesn't fall under the guidelines above of those allowed to posses a copy of your recording
Q: Can we stream the performance or post the video on our website?
A: No. No. The only authorized medium for your archive recording is
on DVD. Allowing a video of your performance to be streamed over
the internet would fall under Broadcast Rights-- and you have not been
granted those. Allowing the video to be posted on your website and
viewed or downloaded would also fall under Broadcast Rights. The
Internet is considered similar to a radio/TV station in the eyes of the
copyright courts. There is no "grey area" in this matter, even for
a church.